Reviews?

[Adagio]

Am I the only one who hates movie/game/what-so-ever reviews? It's often I see a review for a great movie/game, but the reviewer says: "Stay as far away from this as possible..."

I don't know anyone who agrees with most reviews... I have yet to read a review I agree with...

[MikeH]

There are good reviews and bad ones. Learning which reviewers you agree with takes time. As does learning to interpret reviews.

[GePap]

There are a few reviwers I trust, as long as I kow by what criteria they judge. I folow thier recommendations for movies I ha not heard about, or was sitting on the fence for (I would never fail to go see I movie I was dead set in seeing, or go to a movie I was dead set not going to see, based on a review).

[Sava]

I like reviews that give in an depth-description of the game. I care more about what the game is about than whether or not the reviewer liked it. Overall, things that are critically acclaimed can also be absolutely stupid. Like "Titanic" for instance.

[SlowwHand]

Movie reviewers have the most non-working job around.
Why should anyone care what they think ?

Ever watch the now Ebert and Roper ?
Like they agree a lot.

[Boris Godunov]

I tend to take in a lot of reviews and average them out. I wouldn't trust any single review for how a game actually is. For movies, I find www.rottentomatoes.com vital, as it gives a good average of what people say about movies.

I think reviews tend to be too negative these days, as critics try to one-up each other with the wittiest put-downs and catty remarks. They love to pan because they get to be oh-so-clever. At the same time, many "critics" are so unthinkingly non-critical of crap that it's frustrating. How else can you explain how films like Titanic and Gladiator were critically-acclaimed overall?

[Sava]

MAXIMUS MAXIMUS MAXIMUS!

[loinburger]

I like reviewers only after I've learned their reviewing style. F'rinstance, when Siskel was still alive, I'd always avoid a movie if he gave it 4 stars (because it would be an arty boring piece of ****) but would go to a movie if he gave it 3 stars, and would always ignore his reviews for comedies (unless he gave the comedy 4 stars, in which case it must not be funny). I would trust Ebert's 3 1/2 star reviews almost to a T, because it would mean that the movie was fantastic but not sufficiently "serious" for him to give it a 4 star rating, whereas the movies that he gave 4 stars were sometimes acceptable (I'd always check to see what Siskel gave it -- if he gave it 4 stars too, then it would be an arty boring piece of ****, and I'd avoid it).

I still haven't figured out Roper (or is it Roeper? Whatever) though. He seems to agree with Ebert too often for the tag team to be very useful.

[Ming]

Personal tastes are just that... I don't trust anybody to really be able to give me an accurate opinion on whether I will like something (However, for some strange reason, I can usually trust Rah's opinion on things like books, movies, and music, so he is the exception )

There are a few movie reviewers though who I can count on to give me good advice. If they say the movie sucks because all the movie has is "good special effects, gratuitous sex scenes, and a lot of action, but nothing else", I know I should go see it

[Shi Huangdi]

Movie reviews are rarely trustworthy. Computer Game reviews, OTOH, are usually important tools to avoid wastin money on crappy games.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
Computer Game reviews, OTOH, are usually important tools to avoid wastin money on crappy games.

You mean like all those GREAT reviews of Civ III and Moo3...

[Az]

he did say "usually", Ming...

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
Movie reviews are rarely trustworthy. Computer Game reviews, OTOH, are usually important tools to avoid wastin money on crappy games.

Well... If I were to trust all computer game reviews, then The Sims would be the best game ever made, while Civ2 shouldn't have been released...

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Sava
MAXIMUS MAXIMUS MAXIMUS!

YAH!!!! **roars** I'm now one with the Roman citizenry!!!

Gatekeeper

[Straybow]

I felt CG did a fairly accurate review of Civ3. They drastically underestimated how much culture flipping and unmitigated corruption would irritate a certain fraction of Civvers.

I still haven't waded into MoO3, so I don't know how their reviews stack up. I haven't gone to the MoO3 forum here since the first week the game came out (at which time I found very little useful info).

I won't be buying any games for a while. Got a new car , no money left .